Identity Crisis: Crime Scene
by The Wave Blaster
Summary: In the wake of Sue Dibny's murder, the entire super hero community is shaken. Looking for answers, Green Arrow and Oracle assemble a team to investigate the crime scene in ways not even Batman could. What they find will shock all of them, and maybe their entire world.


I'm lost. I don't know what to do. I need a target.

The elevator's sound wakes me up.

Four hours ago, Sue Dibny, our friend, was murdered in her own home. My name is Oliver Queen, Green Arrow, and now I have to step on the remains of my friend's life in order to find the truth. I'm amazed that most of the house is still intact, but it only makes it more unnerving. What's a shame is that she's not the first friend we have failed to. As grim as it sounds, we, the heroes know what to do when a friend dies.

Years ago, Sue's death would've been chaos. But after Clark died, we got organized. Contingency plans were made. Notification and contact charts were put in place. By the time I was buried, we knew how to deal with it. It's a part of our lives. And these days, sadly, we're good at it.

"Barbara, did you hear from Doc Magnus?" I reach for Oracle as I walk the hallway before the Sue and Ralph's apartment. My arm tenses. I keep feeling to aim and shot. But there's no target.

"We're right on schedule, Ollie." Hearing Barbara's voice takes me back to reality. "He'll be there."

Good. Will Magnus may be a mad scientist, but he's good at what he does. We need all the help at hand. No doubt, Oracle put the word out quick. I stop at the apartment's door, which has a paper notice tapped on.

 _"Ollie,_

 _Crime scene's done. Results soon. JUST DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING."_

"What'd Bruce find?" The note has his logo printed on it. Subtle.

"Nothing, from the sound of it." Barbara's voice tenses, just as my arm does again. "No forced entry... all alarms were still on... not even a carpet fiber out of place..." I don't have to hear it to know she's cracking her knuckles. I just stand there, letting her continue. "Everything matched what Ralph said when he took his look." What a joke. This was the man's wife.

"Yeah, but Ralph-"

"I know." Barbara stops me. "He was a mess. He could have missed a lot of details." The elevator sounds, making me look behind as she continues. "But according to Bruce, he was as sharp as sharp as ever. Don't forget, it's still his wife." I rip the notification out of the door when she says that.

"Trust me, I know what death does to you..." We both hang and I need to focus. This is too important to be treated as another case. It's Bruce's biggest flaw. I don't care how good he is, I don't care how well trained. At the end of the day, when all is said and done, like me, like my son, like so many of us, he's only human

"Okays, boys." I open the apartment's door for the cavalry. "Time to do it right." As I said, we need all the help we can get.

Mister Miracle floats over with those discs of his. The name isn't hype, World's Greatest Escape Artist. And by that, I mean three different worlds. I see him and I imagine Houdini with Mother Box technology. Scot can break out of anything. Which means no one's better at finding out how Sue's killer broke in.

We don't stop there. Miracle's just the point man.

Bruce said not a single carpet fiber was out of place. Atom checks each one, personally. I know he's distraught too, but if Ray Palmer can do something, that's focusing on times of crisis. That's why Carter likes working with him. He can keep all of us focused.

Then there's the kid, Ray. I don't know him, but Roy talked good things of him. He does spectrum analysis. The god thing of having meat-humans in this is that he can feel as much as a fridge magnet out of place. Same goes with Magnus' toys and metallurgy. I won't pretend I understand what are they doing, but Gold and Lead look as determined as any of us. Seeing their expressions makes me remind myself they're as human as any of us, not toys.

Metamorpho will come in later for anything we can't identify. I don't need to think about it to know why he isn't here already. Like Ralph's, Rex' identity is public. He must be with Sapphire now, making sure she's safe before leaving her side. Same with Buddy Baker. Yes, we even brought in Animal Man to try and grab a scent. He knows what it feels to have your family in danger while you're not in home, so he arranged with Rocket Red to guard his wife and kids the moment we called. Then, he literally flew all the way from San Diego to come and help.

"Oh, no." Scot's voice makes me jump. When I realize, my arm is already reaching for the bow. I'm not the only one in the room to do the same. We're all silent.

"What's the matter, Scot?" Please, give me a target. "You found anything."

He sits down on the stairs. May be a New God, but Mister Miracle is still a man. He takes off his mask and looks up at me the away a doctor looks at a cancer patient. "Seventeen." No one knows what to say. "Mother Box says there are seventeen ways." He stops, and I begin to pray internally. "Seventeen ways to enter the place without assistance." When Bruce and company designed the security systems, Scot wasn't around to test them. It must be killing him.

Ray grows back from the carpet and sits next to Scot.

"Any way to rule them out?" He asks.

"Yes," Scot takes a long breath. He puts his mask on and goes back to float over our heads. "We keep working."

I look around me and the kid, Ray is already back to the task. The Metal Men never stopped. Buddy is sniffing the entire apartment now, like a hound. Ray disappears, probably double-checking every molecule. I sit where Miracle used to be, asking myself why I'm here. I'm good to shoot arrows at people, not to find whom to shoot at. I walk out to let them work in peace, but as soon as I reach the door, someone shouts.

"We got something!" The Gold's voice is like a synthesizer. He holds his hand up in the air, which is bent in the form of a small cup. "It's a small sample, but we got traces of tricarbane."

"Propane," Ray translates as he takes the golden cup. He un-shrinks a microscope from his belt and goes out to analyze the sample. The others are back to work, but it doesn't pass too much for the next thing to happen.

"Here," Buddy points to a stain of blood, close to where Sue's body was found calcined. "Someone else was here, and stepped on Sue's blood." As he says so, he looks like about to throw up. He grunts. "Sorry, it's the blood." I put my hand to his shoulder and walk him way from the stain. A family man, this must be what his nightmares look like.

Ray checks around the blood stain immediately. I check on him and something tells me the bad news will keep coming.

"Anything yet?" I walk next to him. At first it seems like he's looking at the stain of blood's, but I realize he's looking next to it. He's not moving. "Kid, something's wrong?"

"I-" I begin to pry again. What's he seeing?

"Ray, calm down." I try to sound like Bruce does when talking to his kids. "Now, breathe in and then tell me what do you see."

"Mister Arrow, sir." Just as Scot did before, he takes off his helmet. I realize he can't be older than Connor. Maybe even younger than Roy. "Just... just look." He puts his hand over the stain, and the air glows blue in front of us. It shines like a neon sign, drawing a silhouette. It looks like a woman, around my height, maybe shorter. "This radiation, I wasn't sure first." He keeps talking. "But then I looked down." I follow the kid's gaze. At first I don't understand what I'm seeing. It looks like a trace behind the first silhouette, like a comet's tail. But as I look closer, it becomes clearer.

Behind the silhouette, there's a second one, shorter. Then a shorter one, and another, and another. They make a trace from bigger to small, and I recognize where I have seen the same.

"RAY!" The kid jumps next to me, but I'm not calling for him. "RAY PALMER!" I call again. I fear I found my target, but now I don't want to shoot.


End file.
